UCF professor's cancer fighter may start clinical trials next year

October 29, 2010|By Linda Shrieves, Orlando Sentinel

A UCF professor's breast- cancer research is one step closer to moving from the lab to doctor's offices.

The University of Central Florida and Moffitt Cancer Center in Tampa have signed an agreement with GLG Pharma, a Florida biotechnology firm, to take Dr. James Turkson's cancer-fighting compound to the next level of development with clinical trials of the compound beginning as soon as next year.

Eventually, it may be used as a weapon against a variety of cancers, including breast cancer.

Turkson and a team at Moffitt Cancer Center worked together to develope GLG-302, a compound that has been shown to prevent the uncontrolled activity of the STAT3 protein, which has been linked to breast cancer and many other cancers.

Under the licensing agreement, GLG Pharma, an early-stage Florida biotechnology company founded to develop personalized therapies for cancer patients, obtained the exclusive worldwide rights to the compound.

UCF leaders said the agreement underscores the value of research.

"Our scientists work diligently toward cures for many of the world's deadliest diseases," said Pappachan Kolattukudy, director of the Burnett School of Biomedical Sciences at UCF. "This agreement will help bring some of that work to bear on one of the world's most prolific killers."

Turkson's research on the STAT3 protein began at Moffitt and grew at UCF with major grants from the National Institutes of Health and Florida Hospital. His findings have been published in the academic journals Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences and ACS Chemical Biology.

Turkson moved to UCF in 2005, after completing post-doctoral fellow training in molecular oncology and his first faculty position as assistant professor at Moffitt Cancer Center in Tampa.

In healthy cells, the STAT3 protein plays a useful role in the immune system, cell growth and other functions. It essentially serves as a master switch that regulates genes, turning them off and on as needed.

But something goes wrong in cancer cells, where STAT3 inexplicably gets stuck in the 'on' position. As a result, Turkson said, the protein helps feed tumors, shield them from the body's natural defenses and spread the disease to new organs.

If Turkson's compound can turn off STAT3, it could represent a breakthrough in cancer research. Other scientists have found that Stat3 is found in skin moles that later become malignant and is crucial to lung, colon, stomach and bone cancers.

Moffitt officials said the new compound is significant.

Ray Carpenter, senior licensing manager at the Office of Technology Management and Commercialization at Moffitt Cancer Center, said the three-way agreement is a great example of Florida institutions facilitating bench-to-bedside research in collaboration with Florida companies.

And GLG officials say they are hopeful that this type of compound is the next generation of cancer therapy.

"STAT3 inhibitors appear to be the next generation of targeted therapies. We are excited to be developing these series of compounds," said Mike Lovell, executive vice president of GLG Pharma, LLC.

The company plans to begin further studies that it hopes will lead to human clinical trials within a year.

Linda Shrieves can be reached at 407-420-5433 or lshrieves@orlandosentinel.com